How to keep a trading journal you'll actually use

Most traders know they should keep a journal, and most stop within a month. Usually that's because the journal asks for too much, or because nobody ever looks at it again. A useful journal is short to fill in and gets reviewed every week.

What to record on every trade

1. Date and time you entered, and your session
2. Pair and direction
3. Setup: which of your rules triggered the trade, in a few words
4. Entry, stop loss and target prices
5. Position size and the amount at risk
6. Exit price and the reason you exited: target, stop, manual or time
7. Result in money and in R (see below)
8. Did you follow your rules? Yes or no.
9. A screenshot of the chart at entry
10. One sentence on how you felt or what you noticed

A spreadsheet is enough. Some people prefer a notebook. What matters is filling it in straight after each trade, not at the end of the week from memory.

Measure results in R

R is the amount you risked on the trade. If you risked $50 and made $100, that's +2R. If you lost the full $50, that's −1R. A $30 loss when you'd risked $50 is −0.6R.

Using R instead of money means your results stay comparable as your account grows or you change your risk. It also makes your expectancy easy to calculate: just average the R of all your trades. Our article on risk-reward vs win rate explains why that number matters more than your win rate.

The weekly review

Set aside 30 minutes at the weekend. Look at:

• Rule-following. What share of trades followed your rules? This is the first number to improve, before anything else.
• Results by setup. If you trade two setups, which one is paying? You may find one carries the other.
• Results by time. Many traders find their worst trades come at the same time of day, often late in the session or after a loss.
• Your biggest loss. Was it planned (−1R) or bigger? If bigger, why?
• The screenshots. Look at your entries with fresh eyes. Patterns you can't see in the moment are often obvious a week later.

Write down one thing to change next week. Just one.

Tag your mistakes

Give common mistakes short tags, such as "early entry", "moved stop", "no setup", "revenge" or "oversized", and add them to the trades where they happened. After a month, count them. Most traders find that one or two habits cost them most of their losses. Our article on revenge trading and overtrading covers two of the most common.

Journaling signals you follow

If you trade signals, record them the same way, including the ones you skip. Over time you'll see whether your results match the provider's, and if not, why: late entries, different sizing or closing early. That's useful whichever service you use. See how to read a forex signal for the entry and sizing rules we suggest.

Keep it going

The journal only works if it's easy. If you skip it for a few days, don't try to fill in the gaps. Start again with the next trade. A few months of honest records will tell you more about your trading than any course.

Risk note: trading forex carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for everyone. This article is for education only and is not financial advice.